By: Jonnette Watson Hamilton

PDF Version: A Vote for R v Kapp as the Leading Equality Case of the Past Decade

Case Commented On: R v Kapp, 2008 SCC 41

R v Kapp, 2008 SCC 41 is my nominee for the most significant case of the Aughts decade in the equality rights area. Kapp was destined to be a landmark case, if only because it involved the first direct challenge on the enumerated ground of race under the Charter‘s equality guarantee that was heard by the Supreme Court of Canada. However, because the Court used Kapp as a vehicle to substantially and substantively revise its approach to section 15 claims, the decision is even more significant.

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By: Jennifer Koshan

PDF Version: ABlawg’s Top Cases and Legal Developments from the 2000s, and a Vote for Dunmore

Case Commented On: Dunmore v Ontario (Attorney General), 2001 SCC 94

It is the first month of a new year, and the first year of a new decade. Hence, it is a time for lists. Rolling Stone magazine has opined on the top albums, songs and movies of the 2000s, and the Globe and Mail has weighed in on the top 10 nation builders of the last decade. On the legal front, the Globe also lists the top trials of the decade in Canada as well as internationally. The Court has compiled some statistics on the Supreme Court’s output over the 2000s, and plans its own series of posts on the top judgments of the last decade.

Here at ABlawg, some of our bloggers will be writing about the case or legal development they think was most important from the 2000s. Other bloggers will be compiling top ten lists within particular areas of law. In keeping with the focus of ABlawg, our contributions will be linked to the impact the cases or legal developments have had in this province.

My own pick for a case of significance is Dunmore v Ontario (Attorney General), [2001] 3 SCR 1016. Dunmore was hailed for its recognition that the Charter may impose positive obligations on government. In this case, the obligation arose in the context of including agricultural workers within labour relations legislation as an aspect of freedom of association under section 2(d) of the Charter. While Dunmore hedged on the issue of whether the government had a duty to include protections for collective bargaining, it opened the door for the Court’s later finding that there was such a duty in Health Services and Support – Facilities Subsector Bargaining Assn. v British Columbia, [2007] 2 SCR 391.

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